In this newsletter:
1) China continues coal spree despite climate goals
The Guardian, 29 August 2023
2) China’s new coal power spree continues as more provinces jump on the bandwagon
Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, 29 August 2023
3) China’s energy (In)Security amidst India’s geostrategic advantage in the Indian Ocean Region
South Asian Voices, 24 August 2023
4) Green policies pushing Germany into recession, opposition warns
The Guardian, 29 August 2023
2) China’s new coal power spree continues as more provinces jump on the bandwagon
Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, 29 August 2023
3) China’s energy (In)Security amidst India’s geostrategic advantage in the Indian Ocean Region
South Asian Voices, 24 August 2023
4) Green policies pushing Germany into recession, opposition warns
The Times, 28 August 2023
5) Germany begins dismantling wind farm for coal
5) Germany begins dismantling wind farm for coal
6) Do not heat your homes in the evenings, Net Zero quango tells public
The Sunday Telegraph, 27 August 2023
The Sunday Telegraph, 27 August 2023
7) Ross Clark: Net Zero is condemning more Brits to energy poverty
The Spectator, 28 August 2023
8) A Net-Zero Car Crash in London
The Wall Street Journal, 30 August 2023
The Wall Street Journal, 30 August 2023
9) Retraction of paper saying there is no climate emergency illustrates how dependent climate activists are on scaremongering
The Daily Sceptic, 29 August 2023
10) Andrew Montford: Another fairy tale about the levelised cost of renewables
The Daily Sceptic, 29 August 2023
10) Andrew Montford: Another fairy tale about the levelised cost of renewables
Net Zero Watch, 30 August 2023
11) And finally: School children urged to go veggie and listen to whale songs during net zero lessons
The Daily Telegraph, 28 August 2023
11) And finally: School children urged to go veggie and listen to whale songs during net zero lessons
The Daily Telegraph, 28 August 2023
Full details:
1) China continues coal spree despite climate goals
The Guardian, 29 August 2023
China is approving new coal power projects at the equivalent of two plants every week, a rate energy watchdogs say is unsustainable if the country hopes to achieve its energy targets.
The Guardian, 29 August 2023
China is approving new coal power projects at the equivalent of two plants every week, a rate energy watchdogs say is unsustainable if the country hopes to achieve its energy targets.
The government has pledged to peak emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2060, and in 2021 the president, Xi Jinping, promised to stop building coal powered plants abroad.
But after regional power crunches in 2022, China started a domestic spree of approving new projects and restarting suspended ones. In 2022 the government approved a record-breaking 106 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired power capacity. One gigawatt is the equivalent of a large coal power plant.
This run of approvals is continuing, potentially on track to break last year’s record, according to analysis by the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, published on Tuesday.
It said in the first half of 2023, authorities granted approvals for 52GW of new coal power, began construction on 37GW of new coal power, announced 41GW-worth of new projects, and revived 8GW of previously shelved projects. It said about half of the plants permitted in 2022 had started construction by summer.
The analysts said: “Unless permitting is stopped immediately, China won’t be able to reduce coal-fired power capacity during the 15th five-year plan (2026–30) without subsequent cancellations of already permitted projects or massive early retirement of existing plants.”
Full story
2) China’s new coal power spree continues as more provinces jump on the bandwagon
Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, 29 August 2023
But after regional power crunches in 2022, China started a domestic spree of approving new projects and restarting suspended ones. In 2022 the government approved a record-breaking 106 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired power capacity. One gigawatt is the equivalent of a large coal power plant.
This run of approvals is continuing, potentially on track to break last year’s record, according to analysis by the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, published on Tuesday.
It said in the first half of 2023, authorities granted approvals for 52GW of new coal power, began construction on 37GW of new coal power, announced 41GW-worth of new projects, and revived 8GW of previously shelved projects. It said about half of the plants permitted in 2022 had started construction by summer.
The analysts said: “Unless permitting is stopped immediately, China won’t be able to reduce coal-fired power capacity during the 15th five-year plan (2026–30) without subsequent cancellations of already permitted projects or massive early retirement of existing plants.”
Full story
2) China’s new coal power spree continues as more provinces jump on the bandwagon
Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, 29 August 2023
Coal power continues to expand in China, despite the government’s pledges and goals.
In the first half of 2023, construction was started on 37 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power capacity, 52 GW was permitted, while 41 GW of new projects were announced and 8 GW of previously shelved projects were revived. Of the permitted projects, 10 GW of capacity has already moved to construction.
Permitting continued apace in the second quarter and in some provinces, newly permitted power plants are moving rapidly into construction, while in others, developers might be securing permits “just in case” and not hurrying to break ground. Of plants permitted in 2022, about half (52 GW) had started construction by summer 2023.
After the permitting spree of the past year, China now has 243 GW of coal-fired capacity currently permitted and under construction.
If the permitting rush is not stopped until projects that are currently announced or in pre-permit stages have gained permits as well, there will be a total of 392 GW of new coal-fired power capacity in the pipeline.
Unless permitting is stopped immediately, China won’t be able to reduce coal-fired power capacity during the 15th five-year plan without subsequent cancellations of already permitted projects or massive early retirement of existing plants.
Full post
3) China’s energy (In)Security amidst India’s geostrategic advantage in the Indian Ocean Region
South Asian Voices, 24 August 2023
In the first half of 2023, construction was started on 37 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power capacity, 52 GW was permitted, while 41 GW of new projects were announced and 8 GW of previously shelved projects were revived. Of the permitted projects, 10 GW of capacity has already moved to construction.
Permitting continued apace in the second quarter and in some provinces, newly permitted power plants are moving rapidly into construction, while in others, developers might be securing permits “just in case” and not hurrying to break ground. Of plants permitted in 2022, about half (52 GW) had started construction by summer 2023.
After the permitting spree of the past year, China now has 243 GW of coal-fired capacity currently permitted and under construction.
If the permitting rush is not stopped until projects that are currently announced or in pre-permit stages have gained permits as well, there will be a total of 392 GW of new coal-fired power capacity in the pipeline.
Unless permitting is stopped immediately, China won’t be able to reduce coal-fired power capacity during the 15th five-year plan without subsequent cancellations of already permitted projects or massive early retirement of existing plants.
Full post
3) China’s energy (In)Security amidst India’s geostrategic advantage in the Indian Ocean Region
South Asian Voices, 24 August 2023
China is a net importer of oil and gas and is heavily dependent on overseas energy supplies for its sustained economic expansion and development. According to some predictions, the demand for oil and gas will continue to rise, accounting for 32 percent of the total energy mix by 2050.
China’s global outreach for oil resources revolves around two regions, West Asia, and Africa, which account for almost 63 percent of its crude oil imports. Much of these energy supplies pass through the Indian Ocean region (IOR), to which Beijing has no direct access.
Many analysts consider Beijing’s lack of access to the IOR as its most critical vulnerability. With the “zero-covid policy” lifted, China’s COVID-19-induced slowdown may cease, increasing demand for foreign oil and gas. Russia’s war in Ukraine will intensify the Europe-China rivalry over West Asian and African hydrocarbons. Therefore, to ensure an affordable and consistent supply of oil and gas, Beijing is increasingly engaging with the resource-rich countries in this part of the world.
Centrality of West Asia and Africa in China’s Energy Security
Highlighting the continued centrality of West Asia and Africa in China’s energy strategy, President Xi Jinping attended the inaugural China-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Riyadh, where he inked 34 energy and investment deals with Saudi Arabia, a major supplier of oil to Beijing. Similarly, China’s ‘resource diplomacy’ in Africa is on the rise. Beijing is wooing African states with significant capital investment in the oil and gas energy systems. At its peak, China imported 31 percent of its oil from Africa in 2010, which has reduced to 13 percent today.
This decline in China’s overall crude oil imports from the African continent was mainly due to Covid-19 pandemic-induced slowdown and setbacks faced due to its neo-colonialist policies. Notably, China’s foreign policy tools like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) exhibit neo-colonial inclinations with imperialistic overtones that has led to creating dependency, internal instabilities and undermining sovereignty in several African countries like Libya, Sudan, South Sudan and Angola.
China’s Energy (in)security
The geographical implications of these energy resources transiting via the IOR are at the heart of the debate surrounding China’s energy (in)security. China’s economic expansion needs a safe and long-term energy solution. Therefore, if Beijing wants to expand at a considerable rate to rise economically and militarily, energy supplies must be securely transported from West Asia and Africa to China’s eastern shore. For this, China’s maritime strategy must take into account the geographical aspects of energy security.
China is boosting its BRI and expanding the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s role and presence in the IOR to circumvent the vulnerability of its energy systems. In the past decade, China, through its BRI projects, has tried to construct more pipelines in Central Asia and Russia to diversify its oil and gas imports and reduce its vulnerability of energy transiting via the IOR. Beijing is also developing Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR), with a current capacity of 40 or 50 days of imports. It aims to increase up to 90 days of imports to overcome energy insecurity induced by externalities. Therefore, the realisation in Beijing is that future competition with India in its ‘strategic backyard’, the IOR, would not only be for market or economic growth but also for control of foreign natural resources, notably oil and gas.
India and China in IOR: The Strategic Advantages
India’s strategic position at the intersection of international shipping lanes enables New Delhi to effectively and efficiently employ soft and hard power tools to contain China’s regional expansionism. China’s vulnerability is manifested by the fact that the Indian island territories of Andaman and Nicobar sit next to the Strait of Malacca, while the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Aden and the East African Coast are near India’s western seaboard. This gives New Delhi substantial influence over vital Sea Line of Communication (SLOCs) that carry the bulk of China’s oil and other merchandise trade.
India has overtaken China as the world’s most populous country. New Delhi will subsequently corner most Chinese-bound investments and manufacturing units to the Indian shores, catapulting rapid economic growth. Therefore, New Delhi can leverage its geographical location and large energy consumption potential to influence the overseas energy market and take a leading role in international energy architecture.
Aware of its energy vulnerability, China aims to secure a favourable maritime position in the region. To do so, Beijing seeks access to key ports in the region through the strategic financing model adopted in the BRI to offset India’s geostrategic advantages. China’s major concern is that the Indian Navy – if seen as a credible and capable force compared to the PLA Navy – can hold Beijing’s Indian Ocean-dependent economy hostage at times of conflict. Although, the PLA Navy has been rapidly modernising its fleet in recent years, and it now has one of the most impressive high-tech arsenals in the world, its ability to use these weapons and equipment remains unclear in real-world conflict.
Full post
China’s global outreach for oil resources revolves around two regions, West Asia, and Africa, which account for almost 63 percent of its crude oil imports. Much of these energy supplies pass through the Indian Ocean region (IOR), to which Beijing has no direct access.
Many analysts consider Beijing’s lack of access to the IOR as its most critical vulnerability. With the “zero-covid policy” lifted, China’s COVID-19-induced slowdown may cease, increasing demand for foreign oil and gas. Russia’s war in Ukraine will intensify the Europe-China rivalry over West Asian and African hydrocarbons. Therefore, to ensure an affordable and consistent supply of oil and gas, Beijing is increasingly engaging with the resource-rich countries in this part of the world.
Centrality of West Asia and Africa in China’s Energy Security
Highlighting the continued centrality of West Asia and Africa in China’s energy strategy, President Xi Jinping attended the inaugural China-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Riyadh, where he inked 34 energy and investment deals with Saudi Arabia, a major supplier of oil to Beijing. Similarly, China’s ‘resource diplomacy’ in Africa is on the rise. Beijing is wooing African states with significant capital investment in the oil and gas energy systems. At its peak, China imported 31 percent of its oil from Africa in 2010, which has reduced to 13 percent today.
This decline in China’s overall crude oil imports from the African continent was mainly due to Covid-19 pandemic-induced slowdown and setbacks faced due to its neo-colonialist policies. Notably, China’s foreign policy tools like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) exhibit neo-colonial inclinations with imperialistic overtones that has led to creating dependency, internal instabilities and undermining sovereignty in several African countries like Libya, Sudan, South Sudan and Angola.
China’s Energy (in)security
The geographical implications of these energy resources transiting via the IOR are at the heart of the debate surrounding China’s energy (in)security. China’s economic expansion needs a safe and long-term energy solution. Therefore, if Beijing wants to expand at a considerable rate to rise economically and militarily, energy supplies must be securely transported from West Asia and Africa to China’s eastern shore. For this, China’s maritime strategy must take into account the geographical aspects of energy security.
China is boosting its BRI and expanding the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s role and presence in the IOR to circumvent the vulnerability of its energy systems. In the past decade, China, through its BRI projects, has tried to construct more pipelines in Central Asia and Russia to diversify its oil and gas imports and reduce its vulnerability of energy transiting via the IOR. Beijing is also developing Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR), with a current capacity of 40 or 50 days of imports. It aims to increase up to 90 days of imports to overcome energy insecurity induced by externalities. Therefore, the realisation in Beijing is that future competition with India in its ‘strategic backyard’, the IOR, would not only be for market or economic growth but also for control of foreign natural resources, notably oil and gas.
India and China in IOR: The Strategic Advantages
India’s strategic position at the intersection of international shipping lanes enables New Delhi to effectively and efficiently employ soft and hard power tools to contain China’s regional expansionism. China’s vulnerability is manifested by the fact that the Indian island territories of Andaman and Nicobar sit next to the Strait of Malacca, while the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Aden and the East African Coast are near India’s western seaboard. This gives New Delhi substantial influence over vital Sea Line of Communication (SLOCs) that carry the bulk of China’s oil and other merchandise trade.
India has overtaken China as the world’s most populous country. New Delhi will subsequently corner most Chinese-bound investments and manufacturing units to the Indian shores, catapulting rapid economic growth. Therefore, New Delhi can leverage its geographical location and large energy consumption potential to influence the overseas energy market and take a leading role in international energy architecture.
Aware of its energy vulnerability, China aims to secure a favourable maritime position in the region. To do so, Beijing seeks access to key ports in the region through the strategic financing model adopted in the BRI to offset India’s geostrategic advantages. China’s major concern is that the Indian Navy – if seen as a credible and capable force compared to the PLA Navy – can hold Beijing’s Indian Ocean-dependent economy hostage at times of conflict. Although, the PLA Navy has been rapidly modernising its fleet in recent years, and it now has one of the most impressive high-tech arsenals in the world, its ability to use these weapons and equipment remains unclear in real-world conflict.
Full post
4) Green policies pushing Germany into recession, opposition warns
The Times, 28 August 2023
Germany is heading for a recession driven by the “insane bureaucracy” of the government’s green energy policies, the country’s opposition has warned.
Friedrich Merz, 67, leader of the opposition Christian Democrats, is ahead in opinion polls after adopting more populist policies on the environment and immigration.
Germany is expected to be the worst-performing leading economy in the world this year, according to the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Merz has blamed the slump on the government’s energy policies, which are being led by the Greens in the coalition led by Olaf Scholz, the Social Democratic chancellor. A public backlash forced Scholz to back down on proposals to ban new gas boilers.
“Unfortunately, 2023 will be a year of recession,” Merz told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. “Germany is the only major industrial country in the world to see its economy shrink. If the insane amount of bureaucracy isn’t stopped soon, if energy prices don’t fall quickly, then 2024 won’t be a good year either.”
Scholz was forced to climb down on plans to effectively ban all new gas boilers from the start of next year following a public revolt. Instead, he limited the prohibition to new buildings and offered subsidies for heat pumps.
The furore came after big increases to energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which hit key sectors that were dependent on supplies of cheap Russian gas.
The Christian Democrats are backing lower taxes on energy, the immediate reconnection of mothballed nuclear power stations and “a moratorium on bureaucracy” caused by net zero policies.
Merz said: “Not a single new law should trigger additional bureaucracy. That means, for example: We would stop the heating [boiler] law. In this form, it is not only technologically flawed, but also sets in motion a huge new bureaucracy.”
In a sign of where Merz is taking the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) after the Angela Merkel era, he has declared opposition to Scholz’s “frenzied” plans to legalise cannabis. “The federal government cannot agree on promoting the economy, but on the legalisation of drugs. That says it all,” he said.
Almost three quarters of Germans — 73 per cent — are dissatisfied with Scholz’s coalition government, according to an opinion poll this weekend, while his Social Democrats have been overtaken in the polls by Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Merz has courted controversy by hinting, then recanting, that the CDU would break a mainstream party “firewall” ruling out co-operation with AfD because of its hardline nationalist views.
In another break with Merkel, he has taken a harder line on migration, calling for border controls, breaching the EU’s passport-free travel policy and the fast-track deportations of migrants to Moldova, Georgia, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria.
Full story
The Times, 28 August 2023
Germany is heading for a recession driven by the “insane bureaucracy” of the government’s green energy policies, the country’s opposition has warned.
Friedrich Merz, 67, leader of the opposition Christian Democrats, is ahead in opinion polls after adopting more populist policies on the environment and immigration.
Germany is expected to be the worst-performing leading economy in the world this year, according to the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Merz has blamed the slump on the government’s energy policies, which are being led by the Greens in the coalition led by Olaf Scholz, the Social Democratic chancellor. A public backlash forced Scholz to back down on proposals to ban new gas boilers.
“Unfortunately, 2023 will be a year of recession,” Merz told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. “Germany is the only major industrial country in the world to see its economy shrink. If the insane amount of bureaucracy isn’t stopped soon, if energy prices don’t fall quickly, then 2024 won’t be a good year either.”
Scholz was forced to climb down on plans to effectively ban all new gas boilers from the start of next year following a public revolt. Instead, he limited the prohibition to new buildings and offered subsidies for heat pumps.
The furore came after big increases to energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which hit key sectors that were dependent on supplies of cheap Russian gas.
The Christian Democrats are backing lower taxes on energy, the immediate reconnection of mothballed nuclear power stations and “a moratorium on bureaucracy” caused by net zero policies.
Merz said: “Not a single new law should trigger additional bureaucracy. That means, for example: We would stop the heating [boiler] law. In this form, it is not only technologically flawed, but also sets in motion a huge new bureaucracy.”
In a sign of where Merz is taking the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) after the Angela Merkel era, he has declared opposition to Scholz’s “frenzied” plans to legalise cannabis. “The federal government cannot agree on promoting the economy, but on the legalisation of drugs. That says it all,” he said.
Almost three quarters of Germans — 73 per cent — are dissatisfied with Scholz’s coalition government, according to an opinion poll this weekend, while his Social Democrats have been overtaken in the polls by Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Merz has courted controversy by hinting, then recanting, that the CDU would break a mainstream party “firewall” ruling out co-operation with AfD because of its hardline nationalist views.
In another break with Merkel, he has taken a harder line on migration, calling for border controls, breaching the EU’s passport-free travel policy and the fast-track deportations of migrants to Moldova, Georgia, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria.
Full story
5) Germany begins dismantling wind farm for coal
EU Observer, 29 August 2023
EU Observer, 29 August 2023
German energy giant RWE has begun dismantling a wind farm to make way for a further expansion of an open-pit lignite coal mine in the western region of North Rhine Westphalia.
One wind turbine has already been dismantled, with a further seven scheduled for removal to excavate an additional 15m to 20m tonnes of so-called 'brown' coal, the most polluting energy source.
Full story
One wind turbine has already been dismantled, with a further seven scheduled for removal to excavate an additional 15m to 20m tonnes of so-called 'brown' coal, the most polluting energy source.
Full story
6) Do not heat your homes in the evenings, Net Zero quango tells public
The Sunday Telegraph, 27 August 2023
Millions of families will be urged by a green quango not to heat their homes in the evening to help the Government hit its net zero target.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) said people should turn off their radiators at peak times as part of a wider drive to deliver “emissions savings”.
In a document on “behaviour change” the body recommended Britons “pre-heat” their houses in the afternoon when electricity usage is lower.
It said the move would save families money, but critics suggested the real reason was that renewables will not be able to provide enough energy to cope with peak demand.
The advice is contained in the CCC’s sixth “carbon budget” paper, which sets out how the UK should reduce its emissions between 2033-37.
In it the quango suggests people with electrically powered heating systems, such as heat pumps, should switch off their radiators in the evening.
“There is significant potential to deliver emissions savings, just by changing the way we use our homes,” the dossier states.
“Where homes are sufficiently well insulated, it is possible to pre-heat ahead of peak times, enabling access to cheaper tariffs which reflect the reduced costs associated with running networks and producing power during off-peak times.”
The green quango said that by 2033 all newly built homes and up to half of those constructed after 1952 should be suitable for such pre-heating.
But critics said the advice was just the latest example of Britons being asked to compromise on their quality of life so the Government can hit climate targets.
Andrew Montford, the director of Net Zero Watch said: “The grid is already creaking, and daft ideas like this show just how much worse it will become.
“It’s clear that renewables are a disaster in the making. We now need political leaders with the courage to admit it.”
Craig Mackinlay, head of the Net Zero Scrutiny group of Tory MPs, added: “It is becoming clear that adherence to judicable Carbon Budgets and edicts coming from the CCC are developing into farce.
“The Climate Change Act 2008 will require amendment to free us from madcap and impractical targets foisted upon the population by long departed politicians.
“This latest advice to freeze ourselves on cold evenings merely shows the truth that the dream of plentiful and cheap renewable energy is a sham.
“I came into politics to improve all aspects of my constituents’ lives, not make them colder and poorer.”
A spokesman for the CCC insisted that the advice would benefit households and would mean “homes will still be warm, but bills can be lowered”.
He added: “This is a demonstration of homeowners benefiting from periods of the day when electricity is cheaper.
“Using electricity to heat a home opens the prospect of choosing a time when prices are lower, something that’s not possible with a gas boiler.
“Smart heating of homes like this also makes the best possible use of the grid and supports greater use of cheap renewable generation.”
The advice follows a furore over Government plans to ban the installation of new oil powered boilers from 2026 and force homes into adopting heat pumps.
Downing Street has hinted it is now set to U-turn amid warnings the move would increase rural fuel poverty and put more strain on the struggling electricity grid.
The CCC is an independent body set up by ministers in 2008 to advise the Government on how to hit its climate targets.
Full story
The Sunday Telegraph, 27 August 2023
Millions of families will be urged by a green quango not to heat their homes in the evening to help the Government hit its net zero target.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) said people should turn off their radiators at peak times as part of a wider drive to deliver “emissions savings”.
In a document on “behaviour change” the body recommended Britons “pre-heat” their houses in the afternoon when electricity usage is lower.
It said the move would save families money, but critics suggested the real reason was that renewables will not be able to provide enough energy to cope with peak demand.
The advice is contained in the CCC’s sixth “carbon budget” paper, which sets out how the UK should reduce its emissions between 2033-37.
In it the quango suggests people with electrically powered heating systems, such as heat pumps, should switch off their radiators in the evening.
“There is significant potential to deliver emissions savings, just by changing the way we use our homes,” the dossier states.
“Where homes are sufficiently well insulated, it is possible to pre-heat ahead of peak times, enabling access to cheaper tariffs which reflect the reduced costs associated with running networks and producing power during off-peak times.”
The green quango said that by 2033 all newly built homes and up to half of those constructed after 1952 should be suitable for such pre-heating.
But critics said the advice was just the latest example of Britons being asked to compromise on their quality of life so the Government can hit climate targets.
Andrew Montford, the director of Net Zero Watch said: “The grid is already creaking, and daft ideas like this show just how much worse it will become.
“It’s clear that renewables are a disaster in the making. We now need political leaders with the courage to admit it.”
Craig Mackinlay, head of the Net Zero Scrutiny group of Tory MPs, added: “It is becoming clear that adherence to judicable Carbon Budgets and edicts coming from the CCC are developing into farce.
“The Climate Change Act 2008 will require amendment to free us from madcap and impractical targets foisted upon the population by long departed politicians.
“This latest advice to freeze ourselves on cold evenings merely shows the truth that the dream of plentiful and cheap renewable energy is a sham.
“I came into politics to improve all aspects of my constituents’ lives, not make them colder and poorer.”
A spokesman for the CCC insisted that the advice would benefit households and would mean “homes will still be warm, but bills can be lowered”.
He added: “This is a demonstration of homeowners benefiting from periods of the day when electricity is cheaper.
“Using electricity to heat a home opens the prospect of choosing a time when prices are lower, something that’s not possible with a gas boiler.
“Smart heating of homes like this also makes the best possible use of the grid and supports greater use of cheap renewable generation.”
The advice follows a furore over Government plans to ban the installation of new oil powered boilers from 2026 and force homes into adopting heat pumps.
Downing Street has hinted it is now set to U-turn amid warnings the move would increase rural fuel poverty and put more strain on the struggling electricity grid.
The CCC is an independent body set up by ministers in 2008 to advise the Government on how to hit its climate targets.
Full story
7) Ross Clark: Net Zero is condemning more Brits to energy poverty
The Spectator, 28 August 2023
In Britain’s net zero future it won’t just be a case of turning your heating on a few hours early to pre-heat your home. Many customers face being priced out of the electricity market altogether when supply of renewables is weak.
Here’s another great idea from the net zero establishment: only heat your home when it is warm and sunny outdoors. In its Sixth Carbon Budget paper, the government’s Climate Change Committee advises homeowners to turn their heating on in the afternoon, so that they can turn it off again during the evening when demand for electricity is higher. ‘Where homes are sufficiently well-insulated,’ it says, ‘it is possible to pre-heat ahead of peak times, enabling access to cheaper tariffs which reflect the reduced costs associated with running networks and producing power during off-peak times.’ In other words, boil yourself when the outdoor temperature is relatively warm, and with any luck you might still be tolerably warm when it is freezing outdoors at eight in the evening.
The advice is an admission of where we are headed. At the moment, for most of us, there is no difference between the price of electricity during the afternoon and the evening – it is only at night that we can buy off-peak electricity. That is not how it looks like being in the future. A big part of the plan for decarbonising the electricity system is to manage demand by varying tariffs throughout the day. That is the whole point of smart meters. We had a foretaste of this last winter when customers with smart meters were offered small discounts if they agreed to turn off appliances during the early evening on days when demand was high but, thanks to a lack of sun and wind, renewable energy was in short supply.
That, however, is only the beginning. At the moment, with the help of back-up from gas plants, we don’t have a huge problem in balancing demand and with supply. But by 2035 (2030 in the case of the Labour party) the government wants to remove all fossil fuels from the electricity grid. What do we do then? No-one seems able to explain. Investment in – very expensive – energy storage isn’t coming along at anything like the pace it would need to if we are going to be able to enjoy an uninterrupted supply of power throughout the day. Given that the supply of wind energy can fall away to virtually nothing during calm periods, and solar energy falls to zero every evening, we have a very serious problem. The tendency for still periods to concur with the coldest winter nights exacerbates the problem – especially if the country does as the government wants and switches to heat pumps.
As you can see, from the report of the Commons Business Select Committee ‘demand-side response’ is a big part of the energy industry’s plans. But it isn’t going to be nice little incentives like those offered to householders last winter in the form of £10 vouchers and the like. In future there will be a lot less carrot and a lot more stick – with surge pricing structures akin to those used by companies like Uber. Just think of the price of electricity is going to have to be jacked up to match supply and demand on a cold, still winter’s evening when – in normal times – demand would be at its highest.
In Britain’s net zero future it won’t just be a case of turning your heating on a few hours early to pre-heat your home. Many customers face being priced out of the electricity market altogether when supply of renewables is weak. On a sunny, windy afternoon you may be able to turn on your heating with abandon, even if you don’t need it on. But freezing, still evenings? Maybe there will be a special deal on woolly jumpers.
The recent cancellation of Alimonti et al shows clearly that catastrophising bad weather events and attributing them to a collapse of the climate is now the main weapon deployed to scare populations into embracing the Net Zero agenda.
Of course, reference is still made to global warming, but most recent rises seem to owe more to frequent upward retrospective adjustments of temperature, rather than any significant natural boost. Perhaps we should not be surprised by this turn of events. In a short essay titled ‘The New Apocalypticism’, the science writer Roger Pielke Jr. noted: “For the secular millenarian, extreme events – floods, hurricanes, fires – are more than mere portents, they are evidence of our sins of the past and provide opportunities for redemption in the future, if only we listen, accept and change.”
The climate is collapsing all around us, shout the headlines – they require we ignore the data, the historical record, even common sense. When all is said and done, the Earth is not actually boiling! Well Professor Gianluca Alimonti and three other Italian scientists didn’t ignore the past data, much of it in fact from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and they found little change in extreme weather events. They published a paper concluding that there was certainly not enough to justify the declaration of a ‘climate emergency’. A year later, the publisher Springer Nature bowed to the demands of a group of activist scientists and journalists led by the Guardian and Agence France-Presse and retracted the non-conforming paper. An addendum was proposed and sent to four reviewers for comment. Three reviewers argued for publication. The fourth stated that typical readers were not climate experts and “editors should seriously consider the implications of the possible publication of this addendum”.
We own climate science, boasted UN communications flak Melissa Fleming at a recent World Economic Forum disinformation seminar, and we partner with Google to keep our version at the top of the search list. What a great service these climate experts provide in telling us what to think and see as we unsophisticated rubes struggle towards the path of true enlightenment!
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres recently said we are on a pathway to climate hell, with our foot on the accelerator. Steve Koonin, President Obama’s Energy Under-Secretary for Science and the author of Unsettled, recently charged that climate scientists were negligent for not speaking out and saying Guterres’s comments were “preposterous”. Koonin is not very impressed with mainstream media click bait weather stories. “I can take current media and almost any climate story I can write a very effective counter,” he recently told Peter Robinson, host of Uncommon Knowledge. “It is like shooting fish in a barrel.”
The mainstream media has an agenda to set, namely the de-carbonisation of society. Noting the influence of green billionaire-funded operations like Covering Climate Now, Koonin said the mission was to promote the narrative. The MSM will not allow anything to be broadcast or written that is counter to the narrative. And the narrative is: “We have already broken the climate and we are heading for hell.”
You just need to look out of the window, claim the politicised alarmists. These days any half-decent storm, or scorchio summer’s day, gets them going. This year some unusual weather patterns are put forward as Exhibit A for Thermogeddon. Such deception depends upon the rubes failing to spot the difference between weather and long-term climate trends. Nobody should ask why carbon dioxide has been up to 20 times higher in the atmosphere in the past and life on Earth thrived. CO2 might gently warm the atmosphere up to a certain point, but temperatures naturally go up and down, ocean currents get warmer and cooler, change direction and melt and freeze polar ice. The idea that single events can be linked to any long term effects of CO2 is not just unproven, it’s unprovable. Computer models that ‘attribute’ single events to 30-year trends are laughable pseudoscience.
That wise sage Emeritus Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT, who’s spent decades trying to figure out how the atmosphere works, summed up all this fraud and corruption:
"What historians will definitely wonder about in future centuries is how deeply flawed logic, obscured by shrewd and unrelenting propaganda, actually enabled a coalition of powerful special interests to convince nearly everyone in the world that CO2 from human industry was a dangerous, planet-destroying toxin. It will be remembered as the greatest mass delusion in the history of the world – that CO2, the life of plants, was considered for a time to be a deadly poison."
Full story
Here’s another great idea from the net zero establishment: only heat your home when it is warm and sunny outdoors. In its Sixth Carbon Budget paper, the government’s Climate Change Committee advises homeowners to turn their heating on in the afternoon, so that they can turn it off again during the evening when demand for electricity is higher. ‘Where homes are sufficiently well-insulated,’ it says, ‘it is possible to pre-heat ahead of peak times, enabling access to cheaper tariffs which reflect the reduced costs associated with running networks and producing power during off-peak times.’ In other words, boil yourself when the outdoor temperature is relatively warm, and with any luck you might still be tolerably warm when it is freezing outdoors at eight in the evening.
The advice is an admission of where we are headed. At the moment, for most of us, there is no difference between the price of electricity during the afternoon and the evening – it is only at night that we can buy off-peak electricity. That is not how it looks like being in the future. A big part of the plan for decarbonising the electricity system is to manage demand by varying tariffs throughout the day. That is the whole point of smart meters. We had a foretaste of this last winter when customers with smart meters were offered small discounts if they agreed to turn off appliances during the early evening on days when demand was high but, thanks to a lack of sun and wind, renewable energy was in short supply.
That, however, is only the beginning. At the moment, with the help of back-up from gas plants, we don’t have a huge problem in balancing demand and with supply. But by 2035 (2030 in the case of the Labour party) the government wants to remove all fossil fuels from the electricity grid. What do we do then? No-one seems able to explain. Investment in – very expensive – energy storage isn’t coming along at anything like the pace it would need to if we are going to be able to enjoy an uninterrupted supply of power throughout the day. Given that the supply of wind energy can fall away to virtually nothing during calm periods, and solar energy falls to zero every evening, we have a very serious problem. The tendency for still periods to concur with the coldest winter nights exacerbates the problem – especially if the country does as the government wants and switches to heat pumps.
As you can see, from the report of the Commons Business Select Committee ‘demand-side response’ is a big part of the energy industry’s plans. But it isn’t going to be nice little incentives like those offered to householders last winter in the form of £10 vouchers and the like. In future there will be a lot less carrot and a lot more stick – with surge pricing structures akin to those used by companies like Uber. Just think of the price of electricity is going to have to be jacked up to match supply and demand on a cold, still winter’s evening when – in normal times – demand would be at its highest.
In Britain’s net zero future it won’t just be a case of turning your heating on a few hours early to pre-heat your home. Many customers face being priced out of the electricity market altogether when supply of renewables is weak. On a sunny, windy afternoon you may be able to turn on your heating with abandon, even if you don’t need it on. But freezing, still evenings? Maybe there will be a special deal on woolly jumpers.
8) A Net-Zero Car Crash in London
The Wall Street Journal, 30 August 2023
The Wall Street Journal, 30 August 2023
The internal-combustion engine is one of the most important inventions in history, and it turns out to be useful for more than getting around. It’s also becoming a truth machine as its popularity forces politicians to confront the limits of their net-zero climate gimmicks.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan is the latest leader to crash into the car, admitting Tuesday that he’s scaling back his ambitions to discourage the use of internal-combustion vehicles. He had floated the idea of a new road-charging system by 2025 to punish drivers of carbon-emitting vehicles, beyond the controversial Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) that expands to all parts of the city this week. Mr. Khan’s office estimates Londoners need to drive 27% fewer kilometers per year compared to 2018 in order to meet his preposterous target of net zero by 2030.
Mr. Khan pledged last year to develop a charging system “where drivers pay per mile, with different rates depending on how polluting vehicles are, the level of congestion in the area and access to public transport,” and with “exemptions and discounts for those on low incomes and with disabilities.” He said all this would be—try not to laugh—“simple and fair.”
That plan is in the trash can now, Mr. Khan said Tuesday, buckling to the political pressure created by the far milder ULEZ. That scheme imposes a charge of £12.50 every day a motorist drives an older car within urban London or its near suburbs. “Older” means some cars manufactured as recently as 2015 that don’t meet the strictest emissions standards.
The plan is so unpopular it cost Mr. Khan’s Labour Party a parliamentary by-election in July and triggered a national race for the exits by Labour and the Conservative Party on net-zero policies. Mr. Khan isn’t willing to abandon the ULEZ but he hopes to appease voters by promising that the pain for motorists won’t grow worse.
Talk about a teachable moment. London’s ULEZ is one of the first times British voters—who in the past often told opinion pollsters they support net zero—have been asked to pay directly for an emissions-reduction measure. The costs typically are hidden in incomprehensible electricity bills, or are invisible in business investments not made and jobs not created.
Asked to pay, those voters think twice. Mr. Khan’s retreat makes the score internal-combustion reality 1, net-zero fantasy 0.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan is the latest leader to crash into the car, admitting Tuesday that he’s scaling back his ambitions to discourage the use of internal-combustion vehicles. He had floated the idea of a new road-charging system by 2025 to punish drivers of carbon-emitting vehicles, beyond the controversial Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) that expands to all parts of the city this week. Mr. Khan’s office estimates Londoners need to drive 27% fewer kilometers per year compared to 2018 in order to meet his preposterous target of net zero by 2030.
Mr. Khan pledged last year to develop a charging system “where drivers pay per mile, with different rates depending on how polluting vehicles are, the level of congestion in the area and access to public transport,” and with “exemptions and discounts for those on low incomes and with disabilities.” He said all this would be—try not to laugh—“simple and fair.”
That plan is in the trash can now, Mr. Khan said Tuesday, buckling to the political pressure created by the far milder ULEZ. That scheme imposes a charge of £12.50 every day a motorist drives an older car within urban London or its near suburbs. “Older” means some cars manufactured as recently as 2015 that don’t meet the strictest emissions standards.
The plan is so unpopular it cost Mr. Khan’s Labour Party a parliamentary by-election in July and triggered a national race for the exits by Labour and the Conservative Party on net-zero policies. Mr. Khan isn’t willing to abandon the ULEZ but he hopes to appease voters by promising that the pain for motorists won’t grow worse.
Talk about a teachable moment. London’s ULEZ is one of the first times British voters—who in the past often told opinion pollsters they support net zero—have been asked to pay directly for an emissions-reduction measure. The costs typically are hidden in incomprehensible electricity bills, or are invisible in business investments not made and jobs not created.
Asked to pay, those voters think twice. Mr. Khan’s retreat makes the score internal-combustion reality 1, net-zero fantasy 0.
9) Retraction of paper saying there is no climate emergency illustrates how dependent climate activists are on scaremongering
The Daily Sceptic, 29 August 2023
The Daily Sceptic, 29 August 2023
Of course, reference is still made to global warming, but most recent rises seem to owe more to frequent upward retrospective adjustments of temperature, rather than any significant natural boost. Perhaps we should not be surprised by this turn of events. In a short essay titled ‘The New Apocalypticism’, the science writer Roger Pielke Jr. noted: “For the secular millenarian, extreme events – floods, hurricanes, fires – are more than mere portents, they are evidence of our sins of the past and provide opportunities for redemption in the future, if only we listen, accept and change.”
The climate is collapsing all around us, shout the headlines – they require we ignore the data, the historical record, even common sense. When all is said and done, the Earth is not actually boiling! Well Professor Gianluca Alimonti and three other Italian scientists didn’t ignore the past data, much of it in fact from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and they found little change in extreme weather events. They published a paper concluding that there was certainly not enough to justify the declaration of a ‘climate emergency’. A year later, the publisher Springer Nature bowed to the demands of a group of activist scientists and journalists led by the Guardian and Agence France-Presse and retracted the non-conforming paper. An addendum was proposed and sent to four reviewers for comment. Three reviewers argued for publication. The fourth stated that typical readers were not climate experts and “editors should seriously consider the implications of the possible publication of this addendum”.
We own climate science, boasted UN communications flak Melissa Fleming at a recent World Economic Forum disinformation seminar, and we partner with Google to keep our version at the top of the search list. What a great service these climate experts provide in telling us what to think and see as we unsophisticated rubes struggle towards the path of true enlightenment!
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres recently said we are on a pathway to climate hell, with our foot on the accelerator. Steve Koonin, President Obama’s Energy Under-Secretary for Science and the author of Unsettled, recently charged that climate scientists were negligent for not speaking out and saying Guterres’s comments were “preposterous”. Koonin is not very impressed with mainstream media click bait weather stories. “I can take current media and almost any climate story I can write a very effective counter,” he recently told Peter Robinson, host of Uncommon Knowledge. “It is like shooting fish in a barrel.”
The mainstream media has an agenda to set, namely the de-carbonisation of society. Noting the influence of green billionaire-funded operations like Covering Climate Now, Koonin said the mission was to promote the narrative. The MSM will not allow anything to be broadcast or written that is counter to the narrative. And the narrative is: “We have already broken the climate and we are heading for hell.”
You just need to look out of the window, claim the politicised alarmists. These days any half-decent storm, or scorchio summer’s day, gets them going. This year some unusual weather patterns are put forward as Exhibit A for Thermogeddon. Such deception depends upon the rubes failing to spot the difference between weather and long-term climate trends. Nobody should ask why carbon dioxide has been up to 20 times higher in the atmosphere in the past and life on Earth thrived. CO2 might gently warm the atmosphere up to a certain point, but temperatures naturally go up and down, ocean currents get warmer and cooler, change direction and melt and freeze polar ice. The idea that single events can be linked to any long term effects of CO2 is not just unproven, it’s unprovable. Computer models that ‘attribute’ single events to 30-year trends are laughable pseudoscience.
That wise sage Emeritus Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT, who’s spent decades trying to figure out how the atmosphere works, summed up all this fraud and corruption:
"What historians will definitely wonder about in future centuries is how deeply flawed logic, obscured by shrewd and unrelenting propaganda, actually enabled a coalition of powerful special interests to convince nearly everyone in the world that CO2 from human industry was a dangerous, planet-destroying toxin. It will be remembered as the greatest mass delusion in the history of the world – that CO2, the life of plants, was considered for a time to be a deadly poison."
Full story
10) Andrew Montford: Another fairy tale about the levelised cost of renewables
Net Zero Watch, 30 August 2023
Net Zero Watch, 30 August 2023
I recently described UK government’s latest estimates of levelised cost of renewables as “a fairy-tale”. Well, if Whitehall’s effort was Rumblestiltskin, then the equivalent document from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which appeared yesterday, is Jack and the Beanstalk.
Take the operational costs of windfarms, for example. IRENA claims that it’s difficult get hold of hard data on the subject. This is, not to put too fine a point on it, absolute nonsense. Guys, allow me to introduce you to Companies House, where you will find the audited financial accounts for every UK offshore windfarm and at least half of the onshore ones. Hard data, freely available to download!
For offshore wind, having conveniently overlooked the hard data for another year, IRENA appear to be relying on a 2018 modelling study from the US and a remark in an investor presentation from Orsted (science!). They conclude that opex is in the range £50-100,000 per megawatt of capacity per year.
Take the operational costs of windfarms, for example. IRENA claims that it’s difficult get hold of hard data on the subject. This is, not to put too fine a point on it, absolute nonsense. Guys, allow me to introduce you to Companies House, where you will find the audited financial accounts for every UK offshore windfarm and at least half of the onshore ones. Hard data, freely available to download!
For offshore wind, having conveniently overlooked the hard data for another year, IRENA appear to be relying on a 2018 modelling study from the US and a remark in an investor presentation from Orsted (science!). They conclude that opex is in the range £50-100,000 per megawatt of capacity per year.
Figure 1 shows what they might have concluded, had they stumbled upon the cornucopia of data at Companies House.
The data is divided into cohorts depending on the water depth of the windfarm in question. IRENA does not even allude to opex costs increasing over windfarm lifetimes – a trend that is clear in the data. But whichever way you look at it, their values are around half of anything credible.
It’s a similar story on capacity factors. Figure 2 is IRENA’s graph:
The data is divided into cohorts depending on the water depth of the windfarm in question. IRENA does not even allude to opex costs increasing over windfarm lifetimes – a trend that is clear in the data. But whichever way you look at it, their values are around half of anything credible.
It’s a similar story on capacity factors. Figure 2 is IRENA’s graph:
Figure 2: IRENA’s capacity factor graph
A few recent UK offshore windfarms have averaged 46% capacity factor over their first few years, but there is a trend to declining output as time passes. This is clear in Figure 3, which again divides the fleet into cohorts, but this time by size of turbine.
A few recent UK offshore windfarms have averaged 46% capacity factor over their first few years, but there is a trend to declining output as time passes. This is clear in Figure 3, which again divides the fleet into cohorts, but this time by size of turbine.
Figure 3: UK offshore wind capacity factors
IRENA doesn’t allude this issue, so they appear to be assuming no decline in output over windfarm lifetimes, just as our Whitehall bureaucrats did. As a result, when they look at the effect of opex on overall costs, they conclude that ‘O&M costs per kWh have therefore been falling’, and suggesting that a figure of perhaps £13/MWh ($0.17/kwh) might be expected for European windfarms commissioned in the last five years.
Again, let’s see what effect using some real data has on that value, rather than basing it on throwaway remarks in an industry presentation. I’m not sure I detect anything resembling a decline, let alone anything resembling £13/MWh. It looks as though IRENA’s figures are out by a factor of three.
IRENA doesn’t allude this issue, so they appear to be assuming no decline in output over windfarm lifetimes, just as our Whitehall bureaucrats did. As a result, when they look at the effect of opex on overall costs, they conclude that ‘O&M costs per kWh have therefore been falling’, and suggesting that a figure of perhaps £13/MWh ($0.17/kwh) might be expected for European windfarms commissioned in the last five years.
Again, let’s see what effect using some real data has on that value, rather than basing it on throwaway remarks in an industry presentation. I’m not sure I detect anything resembling a decline, let alone anything resembling £13/MWh. It looks as though IRENA’s figures are out by a factor of three.
Figure 4: UK offshore wind – opex element of LCOE
Magic beans are probably the only way we are ever going to see costs this low.
11) And finally: School children urged to go veggie and listen to whale songs during net zero lessons
The Daily Telegraph, 28 August 2023
Magic beans are probably the only way we are ever going to see costs this low.
11) And finally: School children urged to go veggie and listen to whale songs during net zero lessons
The Daily Telegraph, 28 August 2023
Children in Devon are being urged to abandon meat and listen to whale songs by councils that have declared a climate emergency.
Teaching materials sent to schools last month by the Devon Climate Emergency (DCE), a local authority-led climate change initiative, aim to combat growing “climate anxiety” among five to 16-year-olds.
Suggested lesson ideas include learning about how “young environmental campaigners” use social media in Internet Technology classes and engaging with “hard-hitting” statistics about the planet’s ecological collapse in Maths.
Schools across the ceremonial county have also been given draft letters to send to parents asking them to drive less and pack meat-free lunchboxes for their children to try once a week.
The move comes in response to Devon’s self-declared climate emergency, which was announced by a consortium of 11 councils and over a dozen public, private and voluntary organisations in May 2019.
At the time the group called for “transformational change” to meet net zero carbon emissions by 2050 that would see Devonians travelling less, changing their diets and using more smart energy systems.
The so-called Net-Zero Visions Curriculum, which was approved for schools by the DCE on July 21 ahead of the start of the next academic year in September, puts forward a series of lesson plans and guidance to enable teachers to overcome the challenges of educating children about climate change.
One unattributed quote used to introduce the syllabus, presumably from a teacher, states: “It’s really hard to manage the emotional responses that some children experience when we talk about mass extinction, natural disasters or other really difficult realities.”
Materials intended for use in Key Stage 1 to 4 propose novel ways of helping pupils learn about the future of the Earth, which are said to be in response to mounting levels of anxiety among children about climate change.
One classroom exercise detailed in the curriculum involves children passing around an egg painted to look like a globe in between each other and taking a step back with every pass until it is dropped and broken.
It should then be explained, teachers are told, that “unlike the egg, the Earth can regenerate if we think about being more careful in how we act”.
Elsewhere in the curriculum subjects are noted for their potential to demonstrate the need to transition to net zero.
Physical Education is a chance to open “conversations about how air pollution might effect sports performance”, while Music lessons are suggested as an opportunity to study recordings such as the whale songs employed by the Save The Whales campaign in the 1970s.
Maths should be utilised because information presented through numbers is “clear and hard hitting”, according to the curriculum.
Suggested statistics for children to learn include claims that 60pc of flying insects in the UK have disappeared in the last 20 years and 96pc of life on Earth is made up of humans and their food and only 4pc is wildlife.
The same document also warns teachers against “dropping shocking facts or images unannounced on them [children]”.
In 2021 then Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi announced that climate change education would be delivered through a model science curriculum that is set to be unveiled this year.
But the DCE’s curriculum encourages teachers and schools to “take matters into their own hands” and begin teaching pupils about climate change ahead of any changes to the national curriculum.
Full story
See also: Andrew Montford and John Shade: Climate Control: Brainwashing in schools (PDF)
Teaching materials sent to schools last month by the Devon Climate Emergency (DCE), a local authority-led climate change initiative, aim to combat growing “climate anxiety” among five to 16-year-olds.
Suggested lesson ideas include learning about how “young environmental campaigners” use social media in Internet Technology classes and engaging with “hard-hitting” statistics about the planet’s ecological collapse in Maths.
Schools across the ceremonial county have also been given draft letters to send to parents asking them to drive less and pack meat-free lunchboxes for their children to try once a week.
The move comes in response to Devon’s self-declared climate emergency, which was announced by a consortium of 11 councils and over a dozen public, private and voluntary organisations in May 2019.
At the time the group called for “transformational change” to meet net zero carbon emissions by 2050 that would see Devonians travelling less, changing their diets and using more smart energy systems.
The so-called Net-Zero Visions Curriculum, which was approved for schools by the DCE on July 21 ahead of the start of the next academic year in September, puts forward a series of lesson plans and guidance to enable teachers to overcome the challenges of educating children about climate change.
One unattributed quote used to introduce the syllabus, presumably from a teacher, states: “It’s really hard to manage the emotional responses that some children experience when we talk about mass extinction, natural disasters or other really difficult realities.”
Materials intended for use in Key Stage 1 to 4 propose novel ways of helping pupils learn about the future of the Earth, which are said to be in response to mounting levels of anxiety among children about climate change.
One classroom exercise detailed in the curriculum involves children passing around an egg painted to look like a globe in between each other and taking a step back with every pass until it is dropped and broken.
It should then be explained, teachers are told, that “unlike the egg, the Earth can regenerate if we think about being more careful in how we act”.
Elsewhere in the curriculum subjects are noted for their potential to demonstrate the need to transition to net zero.
Physical Education is a chance to open “conversations about how air pollution might effect sports performance”, while Music lessons are suggested as an opportunity to study recordings such as the whale songs employed by the Save The Whales campaign in the 1970s.
Maths should be utilised because information presented through numbers is “clear and hard hitting”, according to the curriculum.
Suggested statistics for children to learn include claims that 60pc of flying insects in the UK have disappeared in the last 20 years and 96pc of life on Earth is made up of humans and their food and only 4pc is wildlife.
The same document also warns teachers against “dropping shocking facts or images unannounced on them [children]”.
In 2021 then Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi announced that climate change education would be delivered through a model science curriculum that is set to be unveiled this year.
But the DCE’s curriculum encourages teachers and schools to “take matters into their own hands” and begin teaching pupils about climate change ahead of any changes to the national curriculum.
Full story
See also: Andrew Montford and John Shade: Climate Control: Brainwashing in schools (PDF)
The London-based Net Zero Watch is a campaign group set up to highlight and discuss the serious implications of expensive and poorly considered climate change policies. The Net Zero Watch newsletter is prepared by Director Dr Benny Peiser - for more information, please visit the website at www.netzerowatch.com.
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